My parents wanted me to be a lawyer. But I don’t think I would have been very happy. I’d be in front of the jury singing.

I don’t get anything for free. I pay for all my beauty treatments.

If you kiss on the first date and it’s not right, then there will be no second date. Sometimes it’s better to hold out and not kiss for a long time. I am a strong believer in kissing being very intimate, and the minute you kiss, the floodgates open for everything else.

And I love the idea of spending the whole day in bed with my lover.

If anyone can figure out how to balance my celebrity and my dual careers in music and film, it’s me. I don’t feel frightened; I feel challenged.

I was always a singer and a dancer, and I always wanted to be an actress. For me, it’s all just one thing.

You get what you give. What you put into things is what you get out of them.

People assume I’m out there having this great life, but money doesn’t erase the pain. When you’re young you barrel through life, making choices without thinking of repercussions. A few years down the line, you wake up in a certain place and wonder how the hell you got there.

The bear is what we all wrestle with. Everybody has their bear in life. It’s about conquering that bear and letting him go.

You know, maybe I was just born in the wrong time, but I love all things romantic. Puffy understands that. For my last birthday, he covered my hotel room floor with rose petals and had flowers and candles all over the room.

J. Lo is also an homage to my fans. That’s what fans call me on the streets, and I like it. So giving the album this title is my way of telling them that this is for them, in appreciation of their support.

It’s a shame to call somebody a ‘diva’ simply because they work harder than everybody else.

I could serve coffee using my rear as a ledge.

This is the man my mother lived for. My career means something now because I’ve worked with Robert Redford.

In Hollywood, she’s revered, she gets nominated for Oscars, but I’ve never heard anyone in the public or among my friends say, ‘Oh, I love Winona Ryder.’

And I deal with all that by being like a perfectionist. But that’s okay.

I can only speak for myself, and hope people hear my words and see me on television speaking for myself. And, hopefully, they’ll be able to make their own judgment. And at the end of the day, I just want my work to speak for itself.

Puffy produced four of the tracks on the album. Those are the four songs that are collaborations between Puffy and me. And he gives me my space to work even when we work together, like with my producer and my vocal coach.

People equate sexy with promiscuous. They think that because I’m shaped this way, I must be scandalous – like running around and bringing men into my hotel room. But it’s just the opposite.

I swear to God, I don’t remember anything Gwyneth Paltrow was in. Some people get hot by association. I heard more about her and Brad Pitt and I ever heard about her work.

I’d be stupid not to take into consideration that there are certain things people will not consider me for because my name is Lopez. And I know I can do any kind of role. I don’t want anybody to say, Oh, she can’t pull this off. So those are barriers that you have to overcome.

I have the stardom glow.

I judge people on how they smell, not how they look.

It used to bother me being portrayed as this bitchy person, but now I feel that the public understands me better than some writer. There are people who know who I really am, and that’s good enough for me.

But from the time I was very little, it was something I would do all the time, just sing, dance and act. So it wasn’t something that was fake or contrived as I got older.

You can’t take life for granted.

My parents wanted me to be a lawyer. But I don’t think I would have been very happy. I’d be in front of the jury singing.

I just knew that was what I wanted to do. I was going to perform as a singer; I was going to perform as a dancer, and I was, you know, going to do movies and be an actress. I was going to do it or die trying. That’s what my life was.

I feel I want to grow as an actress and be better. I want to progress as a singer and songwriter, and produce movies and everything. So there’ll be no time when I feel I’ve done it all.

So I sat down with him and portrayed more the side of the character he needed to see. Which is what I do when I go in for an interview for a part I like. As much as you think you’re dealing with creative people, they see you for what your image is out there.

They’re making me out to be a serial marrying person or something. I’m laughing at that.

You have to come in and be that character when you walk into the room. That’s what one of my first acting teachers taught me. You know, don’t go in there being Jennifer and then expect to flip and change, because they’re not going to have that imagination.

And I never ask what I’m doing the next day. I don’t want to know what I’m doing tomorrow. It’s much too overwhelming. So I just go day by day, without knowing.

Beauty is only skin deep. I think what’s really important is finding a balance of mind, body and spirit.

I grew up in the Bronx where you would stay up late with your girlfriends, just being silly in our bedrooms, whatever. And I was always the clown.

There are certain people that are marked for death. I have my little list of those that treated me unfairly.

I loved the last album, and it was one hundred percent me. But this is like me two years later, who understands a little bit more about music and understands a little bit more about making an album. I wrote a lot more.